A ‘Happiness’ Cocktail From San Fran’s Newest Chinese Restaurant

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Brandon Jew (right) in his new restaurant Mister Jiu’s, in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood.CreditCreditKassie Borreson

By Jeanine Celeste Pang

April 19, 2016

In San Francisco’s Chinatown, Brandon Jew, the former chef of SoMa’s hip, biodynamic tavern Bar Agricole, has just opened a contemporary Chinese restaurant called Mister Jiu’s — in a two-story space that formerly housed one of the oldest and most opulent Chinese restaurants in the city. His organic and locally driven banquet menu, the first of its kind in the neighborhood, is rooted in memories of growing up as a Chinese-American boy in the mostly Asian suburb of Outer Sunset, and visiting Chinatown with his parents. “We want to eat the way we believe in now, but we also want ties to our family and memories of grandma cooking,” he says. Guests dine family-style, choosing between Northern California-ish versions of traditional Chinese fare, like cheong fun (a rice-noodle roll typically served as dim sum) dressed with plump fillets of Mendocino uni and organic sprouts, or a steamed-clam-and-ramp egg custard. The house specialty is a tea-smoked Peking duck shuttled in from a Sonoma County farm just an hour north of the city. And instead of fortune cookies, dessert options include frozen soy milk sprinkled with jasmine granita and rhubarb.

“What kept me motivated was getting this space back to its glory days,” Jew says. “I really want this to be my home, and I wanted to make it nice.” At the restaurant’s friends and family event earlier this month, Jew’s longtime friend, the celebrity chef Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese, showed up with Champagne, a pound of caviar and three buckets of Popeye’s chicken. “The guy knows how to party,” Jew says, and then, after a beat: “When it comes down to it, I just want people to come back to Chinatown and have fun again.” In the same spirit, Mister Jiu’s bar director Danny Louie shares below the recipe for the restaurant’s Happiness cocktail exclusively with T.